The invention relates to a method of and apparatus for feeding a fibre tow or strand-like material, especially a sliver to a textile machine.
It is known, in textile machines which process tow or sliver material supplied in cans, for the tows to be transported from the cans to the machine by a flow of transport air through transport tubes. The air flow is generated by a source of suction provided at the machine, and such arrangements, which can replace conventional creels, usually function very satisfactorily.
In the aforementioned copending application Ser. No. 06/164,292 assigned to the assignees hereof it is proposed to transfer the leading end of a tow or sliver to a textile machine by means of a flow of feed air, which is stronger than the normal flow of transport air. The leading end is, for this purpose located at a position of readiness at the entry to the transport tube.
However, in order to thread such a leading end of tow into the textile machine, manual work on the part of an operator is still required. A sufficient length of the leading end of the tow must be twisted by hand before it can be threaded into the machine, or into the transport elements and/or working elements of the machine. This twisting imparts increased tensile strength to the leading end of the tow, apart from making it more compact in form and easier to thread. However, this work slows down the operation of threading, and particularly with large machines such as flyers with over a hundred spindles, this machine-tending time is of considerable economic significance.